1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to indicating systems, such as a system for indicating the presence or absence of a room occupant so as to indicate the availability or vacancy of rooms in hotels or the like and, more particularly, the present invention relates to a status signaling system in general and is applicable for indicating the status of a room of the kind used in hotels, clubs and the like to enable signals to be given from a plurality of separate rooms indicating the status or condition of the respective rooms.
2. Description of the Prior Art
At the present time, it is the general practice in such businesses as hotel and motel management to be notified when a patron is in occupancy of a particular room for hire. Particularly in large hotels, for example, it is generally necessary to notify different personnel concerning the status of rooms to be prepared for occupancy or in the process of preparation for occupancy. In a hotel, it is usual to provide at a front desk location, an array of indicator lamps which display information pertaining to the status of different rooms. Each of the lamps is connected in a signaling circuit associated with a respective room, and each signaling circuit may include indicator lamps at other locations such as at a housekeeper's panel and in a respective room. When a room is to be made up for occupancy, the desk clerk operates an appropriate switch at the desk panel and this conditions the respective room signaling circuit whereby a characteristic signal appears at the desired panel indicating the status of the room.
Although such a prior art system does provide indication of room status, it is noted that the operation of the switch is at the central location and is performed by the desk clerk. Also, it is apparent that there is no automatic indication that a patron has vacated his room even though his check-out time may be substantially later. Furthermore, in such prior art systems, there is no incentive for the patron to return the key to the desk clerk with the adverse effect that many keys are lost, stolen or otherwise disappear from use.
Furthermore, prior art systems do not lend themselves for duplexing of information such as may be incorporated into burglar alarm systems, emergency room call systems or patron related call systems. Numerous arrangements of this general kind have been proposed in the past such as is disclosed and shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,623,950; 2,554,223 and 3,588,868. However, all such arrangements are very expensive to install because of the necessary extensive wiring involved and frequently on account of the elaborate equipment for providing the different characteristic signals in each of the signaling circuits. In general, several signaling circuits for each room are required, and each signaling circuit has required a number of call wires. Furthermore, none of these prior art systems include incentives for key return or for key collection when the room is intended to be vacated.